Wayne Mellinger: Outreach in the Age of Fentanyl, and Another Young Man Lost

Wayne Mellinger: Outreach in the Age of Fentanyl, and Another Young Man Lost

I met “Tim” one night at the 24-hour gas station at Chapala and West Carrillo streets where unhoused people gather when everything else in Santa Barbara has closed. He was hard to miss: tall, blond, blue eyes, a warm half-smile that flashed even when he was exhausted or slipping into psychosis. He hung around the wall in front of Ralphs, across the street, the stage for so many of my outreach encounters. I had known him 12 weeks when he disappea…